1970 Olds Cutlass W-31 - Familiar Face

John Ayers has heard a lot of stories about Oldsmobile W-machines tucked away in various parts of the country, but every time he tried to track one down it was never where it was supposed to be. So it was with a strong sense of deja vu that John and his brother went to Avery County, North Carolina, to follow a lead they got from one of their buddies in a parts store. Supposedly there was a Chevy guy there with an unusual Olds.

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This time the car did exist. "It was in pieces all over his shop," John says. "The guy thought a GM A-Body was a GM A-Body, but once he started trying to put the pieces together he realized he was wrong and lost interest." John verified it was a W-31, and after some negotiations the Brothers Ayers traded a pair of big-block Chevy engines and cash for the Olds.

Once everything was home, a detailed inspection showed minor trim was missing, the interior was rough, a mirror and the grilles were busted, and it had the wrong rearend and transmission. But the engine was correct and still had all the W-31 goodies.

3/6According to owner John Ayers, there were 1,352 W-31s sold in 1970. They were listed as Cutlass models and not 4-4-2s for insurance purposes.

The body had new sheetmetal that was done well, though when the light hit the paint just wrong the quarters were a different shade, and there were stress cracks in the original fiberglass hood. "eBay got rich from my dad," John says. "He bought all the N.O.S. parts he could find."

One purchase was a complete exhaust system from the original owner of a '70 W-31. He had ordered the exhaust for his car in 1971 but never installed it. He drag-raced the car and was selling parts from it because he wanted to go faster by adding wheel tubs and a big-block Chevy. He also had the original W-27 12-bolt axle assembly, the one with the aluminum centersection. "We offered to trade him an original 4-4-2 and cash to stop the madness, but he wouldn't even consider it," says John.

4/6The original L74 325-horse 350 has No. 6 heads with 2.00-inch intake/1.625-inch exhaust valves and a stock-spec cam with 0.474-inch lift and 308-degrees duration, all from Mondello. The specially calibrated carb and aluminum intake were also W-31-specific, as was the 10.5:1 compression ratio.

After two years of reassembly and detailing, the car went to its first show in Asheville, North Carolina. John says, "It didn't take long for someone to start talking about a car like it, owned by a family member in Marion, North Carolina. He said the car was sold to a man in Roan Mountain, Tennessee, not to the man we bought it from, but someone in that town." That'd be merely interesting if it wasn't the start of a pattern.

"At the next show, another guy came up and started talking about a fast car like this one when he was younger," John tells us. "Dad kept digging and discovered a North Carolina teacher had owned it. We talked to the teacher and found that he drove it to work every day in the '80s. At a couple more local shows, a couple more people knew the car, and we got more history and owner's names."
While hauling it to another show, John stopped at a small country store in Buledean, North Carolina, for a soda. "A middle-aged man started talking about the car and told me his uncle had one just like it," remembers John. "He said, 'I think it ended up in Marion, North Carolina. You should check down there for it.' I told him about the previous owners from Marion and we realized this was the same car.

"He told me about his uncle racing it on the back roads for years, beating everyone but his nephew's GTO," John continues. "He told stories about smoky burnouts and donuts in town, a missed shift that whipped the tranny, pulling a trans out of a junkyard Chevy, and trashing the rearend in another race."

5/6The dash, Sport Grip steering wheel, console, and AM radio are the originals, while the seat covers, door panels, carpet, and headliner are from Legendary. The windshield and back glass are N.O.S.

John said the guy's uncle bought the car from a Johnson City doctor when it was 2 years old. The uncle drove it every day to work in Charlotte, North Carolina, and cruised on I-40 at 125 mph, the Olds small-block whining like a jet engine. John says, "He said it made a sound he would never forget. As we got ready to leave, he almost teared up. He said it was his favorite car in the world."

The next day, John stopped at a feed store owned by Jet Engine's cousin and got his dad's number--who lived just 2 miles down the road from John's family! He said the original owner didn't want a four-speed and traded the car for an automatic model. This guy bought it and kept it for several years before trading it for an almost-new 4x4 truck. A few years later, that guy traded it to a friend who ragged the car out, then parked it under a walnut tree until it was sold to someone in Marion.

6/6John has heard from Olds experts that fewer than 200 of the W-27 rearends exist. A dealer sales book describes the $157.98 "Aluminum Rear Axle Carrier and Cover" as providing "the functional advantage of lowering the operating temperature of the differential by up to 20 degrees, a distinct trailer towing and heavy service advantage. In addition, overall weight is reduced by more than 20 pounds over the standard cast iron axle carrier and cover."

Several months later a friend in Roan Mountain, Tennessee, told John about a car just like the Galleon Gold Olds that was regularly beat on in the '90s. Driven Dukes of Hazzard style, the unregistered, unlicensed car earned a reputation as a terror, regularly outrunning the cops on gravel roads. There were even stories of its being used to haul moonshine, though nobody John has found will admit to it.

John says everywhere he goes, someone knows the car. We saw it for ourselves while photographing the Olds after meeting John at the Forge Musclecar Show. At 7 o'clock on a Sunday morning in a Tennessee back alley, a guy came into the adjoining parking lot and struck up a conversation about a car "just like that gold Olds." Twenty minutes later they knew it was the same car.